About a year after its last public offering, Idera Pharmaceuticals Inc. priced a $75 million public offering Friday to advance ongoing and upcoming trials of IMO-8400, its lead Toll-like receptor antagonist candidate in development for the treatment of Waldenström's macroglobulinemia, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), dermatomyositis and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). The company is selling 20 million shares priced at $3.75 each.

Goldman, Sachs & Co. and J.P. Morgan are acting as joint bookrunners and the company has granted them a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 3 million shares. Piper Jaffray & Co. is lead manager. The offering is expected to close Feb. 19.

Investors buying into or bolstering their Idera holdings are backing drugs developed on two platforms, the Cambridge, Mass.-based company's TLR-targeting technology, the source of IMO-8400, and its gene silencing oligonucleotide, or GSO, technology, a platform it frames as a "third generation antisense technology" with the potential to reduce immunotoxicity and increase the potency of gene silencing oligonucleotides.

With no fewer than four upcoming trials of IMO-8400 either planned or in motion for oncology and rare disease indications, plus a set of two phase I/II trials of earlier TLR-targeting molecules, IMO-2055 and IMO-2125, for intratumoral injection in combination with checkpoint inhibitors for selected oncology targets, the company has generated plenty of plans to fund since raising about $36 million in February of last year, shortly after which it began to turn its attention away from plaque psoriasis, an earlier area of focus for the IMO-8400 program. (See BioWorld Today, March 31, 2014.)

An ongoing phase I/II study of the TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9 antagonist IMO-8400 in relapsed or refractory Waldenström's is the company's nearest term catalyst, with results set to read out in the drug's orphan-designated indication in the fourth quarter this year. In addition, it's advancing a phase I/II study of IMO-8400 in patients with DLBCL for which it is currently screening patients; a phase II study in dermatomyositis planned for initiating by the end of this year and a phase I/II trial in DMD slated to start early next year; and a proceeding with preclinical and phase I studies of TLR agonist, IMO-9200, for potential autoimmune indications.

At the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting last year, Idera presented preclinical data demonstrating IMO-8400 could inhibit the survival and proliferation of B-cell lymphoma cells harboring the oncogenic MYD88 L265P genetic mutation. Results showed that treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma cells expressing that oncogenic mutation with IMO-8400 led to cell death and decreased proliferative cell signaling. In May 2014, it struck a deal with Abbott Molecular Inc. to develop a companion diagnostic to identify the mutation in patients with B-cell malignancies as part of the program.

The company's principal competitors in developing TLR antagonist targeting rare diseases is Dynavax Technologies Corp., of Berkeley, Calif., which is assessing DV1179, its bifunctional inhibitor of TLR7 and TLR9 in numerous indications, including dermatomyositis. The company is also watching competitors such as Index Pharmaceuticals AB, Gilead Sciences Inc. and Astrazeneca plc which are developing TLR agonists for various indications.

Idera has substantially renewed some of its top leadership over the past three months, starting with appointment of a new CEO in December. Vin Milano, former president and CEO of Shire plc-acquired Viropharm Inc., moved into the top job as former CEO Sudhir Agrawal moved to lead the company's scientific research efforts as president of research. In January, another former Viropharm executive, Clayton Fletcher, joined the company to lead its business development and strategic planning, while former Jim Baker moved from corporate affairs up to market development. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 12, 2013.)

Though the development of IMO-8400 will remain the key driver for the company this year, a new proof of concept for the GSO platform expected to begin in the second half of 2015 could help lay the groundwork for multiple new drug and partnering opportunities, PiperJaffray senior analyst Edward Tenthoff said in December. Idera designed the platform to turn off the mRNA associated with disease causing genes and to side-step some of the problems associated with earlier generation antisense and RNA interference technologies. Idera is already planning to conduct disease model studies and begin investigational new drug application-enabling development programs in each of the first two disease indications it has selected for further development.

Due to a quiet period, Idera representatives were unable to speak with BioWorld Today. The company estimated that it had cash, cash equivalents and investments of about $48.6 million at the end of last year.

Idera shares (NASDAQ:IDRA) fell Friday, losing 14 cents, to close at $4.10.